Devon Ramsay hugs his mother Sharon Lee in her Red Bank home. The former football player at the University of North Carolina is hoping to play for the NFL.

It had been nearly six years - long years - since a wide-eyed Devon Ramsay showed up in Chapel Hill, N.C. Yet as he leaned his 6-2, 245-pound frame forward on the couch in his mother's East Westside Avenue home recently, those less complicated times seemed to return in an instant.

"I was hoping I'd eventually be able to earn a starting role and become a prime-time player. Become a superstar," he said. "That's what I dreamed about."

Seated across the living room, Sharon Lee politely described the final game of her son's career at North Carolina as "bittersweet."

So we're clear, that falls woefully short of capturing her true emotions as she watched him come on for two stinking plays back on Nov. 24 - his only two plays of the 2012 season - or describing the improbability that he would have been anywhere near Kenan Memorial Stadium on Senior Day.

Ramsay's journey since the summer of 2007 is at once a cautionary tale concerning the absolute power the NCAA wields and a tribute to the perseverance of a single-minded student-athlete and the unbreakable ties that bind a family.

Restored reputation

The fullback once touted among the nation's best is now hoping to prove to an NFL team that he's fully recovered from the knee injury that cost him the entire 2011 season and part of the next.

More important, however, is his restored reputation after the allegations that could have cost him a lot more than the final nine games of the 2010 campaign.

"I mean, do I hold a little resentment? Yes," Ramsay said. "But I feel like you've got to grow from it and keep moving forward. And I feel like if you hold onto it, you're going to rot from the inside out."

The NCAA sharks were circling coach Butch Davis' program three summers ago, as improprieties involving players and improper benefits from an agent led to a slew of suspensions. With sanctions against the school looming, the rush to judgment was on.

On Oct. 4, 2010, Ramsay was called in after practice and confronted with an e-mail exchange from two years earlier involving a tutor, who made suggestions on a three-page paper titled "Industrialized Nations" for Sociology 111.

The university's Honor Court would later decline to even hear the case against Ramsay, nor did anyone have the paper he ultimately submitted. Yet the NCAA ruled him guilty of academic misconduct and declared him permanently ineligible.

Sharon Lee knows injustice when she sees it, and she knew her son could write his own paper. So she went into protective-mother mode and tried everything to clear his name.

"I'd like to think I raised him to believe that if you do the right thing, good things will happen," she said. "And when that's not the pattern, when something goes astray, as it did with the NCAA, how do you not support him? How do you say, 'Oh, we'll just let that go.' It's too big. It's about his reputation."

Unexpected help

A mom attempting to argue with the NCAA suits can be an unfair fight. Fortunately, it led to a tearful interview in a North Carolina coffee shop with a local reporter, with the resulting story catching the attention of Robert Orr, a former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice.

"Frankly, I was stunned at what happened to him," said Orr, who quickly gathered the facts and took up the cause.

"I teach a research and writing course at the law school at UNC and have taught for years, and even if you took the changes she made I wouldn't have considered them unreasonable. The tutor, she ends her e-mail to him saying, "here are my suggested revisions, use what you want.' "

With Orr leading the fight, the NCAA reversed its ruling in February of 2011 and reinstated Ramsay, although the stigma lingers. All of which leaves you wondering just how many student-athletes never find an advocate like Orr.

"That's why I have become, one, disillusioned about the NCAA system, and two, a real advocate for major reform to protect the rights of these young men and women," said Orr. "In high profile cases you at least find out what's going on. But I've had collegiate wrestlers call me, kids playing football at Coastal Carolina, all of whom are getting screwed in one way or another.

"I heard Carolina's officials say it more than once: 'Our first responsibility is to protect the institution.' Which is why I said, 'He needs his own lawyer, not the university's lawyer.' "

False start

Now comes the part of the tale ripped straight from a Greek tragedy.

On the first play of the second half in the 2011 opener, a defender fell on Ramsay's left leg from behind as he was blocking.

His knee was shredded, and while the NCAA granted him an extra year of eligibility, he wasn't cleared to play until the fifth game of the 2012 season. And with a new head coach and an offensive scheme that did not use a fullback, he didn't get on the field until that brief appearance in his final game.

Those might have been the most important two plays of his career.

"He was an NFL fullback," said former North Carolina offensive coordinator John Shoop, who currently holds the same position at Purdue. "In a game right before he was declared ineligible, he had 11 pancake blocks. We thought we had something special.

"It's hard for me to believe what he's been through because Devon's character is beyond reproach. What perseverance he showed getting back on the field. I just hope an NFL team looks at this young man's potential."

Ramsay left North Carolina with more than a degree in public policy analysis. He got an advanced degree in life lessons, overcoming obstacles that would have shattered almost anyone else's dreams of playing professionally.

And who wouldn't want someone like that in their locker room?

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Devon Ramsay overcomes NCAA obstacles with help from family, friends

It had been nearly six years ? long years ? since a wide-eyed Devon Ramsay showed up in Chapel Hill, N.C.

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